Theodor Erdmann

Albrecht Johannes Theodor Erdmann (born September 5, 1795 in Oldenburg ; † December 8, 1893 there ) was a German administrative lawyer and the last district president of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg .

Youth and student days

Theodor Erdmann was the second of four children of the Herzoglich-Oldenburg Chamber Secretary Johann Wiegand Christian Erdmann (1764–1842) and his wife Dorothea, b. Ranniger (1771-1849). Erdmann's Abitur in 1812 fell during the French occupation of northern Germany by Napoleon Bonaparte . While Grand Duke had Peter I in 1811, all released before the start of his exile in Russia its officials from their official duties, the French put Erdmann's father, however, as mayor of Oldenburg and member of Consiels ( State Council ) of the Weser department one. Theodor Erdmann himself learned from Easter 1812 first in the office of the sub-prefect Johann Eberhard Pavenstedt and then from his successor Baron Frochot French administration and language. After his father had been arrested by the French in May 1813 with the aim of intimidation and only acquitted in June, Erdmann was sent to Hamburg that same month to take the position of private secretary for Friedrich August Rüder , who was a friend of his father's and was installed as mayor of Hamburg by the French after the return of the Napoleonic troops . During a vacation stay with his mother's family in Eutin , the city was liberated by Danish troops in September 1813 and Erdmann was then sent to Kiel by his relatives for security reasons to study law . When fighting broke out there in December, Erdmann first returned to Oldenburg, which had already been liberated, and then began studying at the Georg-August University of Göttingen on May 1, 1814, and continued at the University of Heidelberg in October 1815 and to finish with the exam in December 1816. In Göttingen Erdmann was a member of the Corps Bremensia , in Heidelberg the Landsmannschaft Westphalia .

Grand Ducal Oldenburg official in Eutin

Erdmann's father had become senior bailiff in Zwischenahn after the French period and Theodor Erdmann helped with the registry after his studies before starting his time as a trainee lawyer at the district court in Neuchâtel in Friesland in March 1817 . Even before the 2nd state examination, however, the president of the regional court retired on January 1, 1818, and Erdmann was appointed to his father's former position as chamber secretary of the Grand Duke in Oldenburg without an examination. The Chamber of the Grand Duke was responsible for the financial and administrative affairs of the Grand Duchy and was also responsible for the military administration, to which Erdmann was assigned as an auditor .

In September 1819 he went to Eutin as a government assessor, which at that time belonged to the Grand Duchy and where he made the acquaintance of the famous painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein among his maternal relatives . In Eutin he prepared the collection of laws, which was published in 1836/37 by his brother-in-law Maximilian Heinrich Rüder as a manual for the knowledge of the particular legislation of the Principality of Lübeck and was responsible for the liquidation of the war costs. In 1823 he also assumed responsibility for the administration of the affairs of the cathedral chapter, which was secularized in 1803 .

In 1830, only two years after his appointment to the government council, he was entrusted with the investigation of the murder of the Danish ambassador in Eutin, Rudolf Anton Ludwig von Qualen , which ended in 1837 with an acquittal of the accused before the Grand Ducal Higher Appeal Court in Oldenburg .

Erdmann's role in the creation of Wilhelmshaven

Due to the limited opportunities for advancement in the Eutin civil service apparatus, Erdmann applied to Grand Duke August I , who brought him back to Oldenburg as a councilor in 1840. There he initially took over the police administration and reorganized the associated penal institutions. The task assigned to him in 1844 to negotiate sovereignty and property issues with Bremen and the Kingdom of Hanover with Bremen and the Kingdom of Hanover dragged on for two decades and could only be brought to a conclusion in 1854 and 1867 respectively. Appointed Privy Councilor by the Grand Duke, Erdmann was a member of the government commission in Hanover and Celle in 1848, which advised on measures for the military protection of the North Sea coast. He also took part in the negotiations that the Fifties Committee of the Frankfurt National Assembly held in Hanover in May 1848 on the fleet issue and organized the fairway water investigation of Jade and Weser. With two memoranda he tried to induce the central government and the Grand Duke to build a war port in what is now Wilhelmshaven , which is why the Grand Duke jokingly referred to him as "my naval minister". However, the Reich Naval Commander in Chief Karl Rudolf Brommy preferred the Oldenburg location in Brake on the Lower Weser as a quarters for the Reich fleet and had a repair dock built there in 1849 with the help of the North Sea states. After the dissolution of the Frankfurt National Assembly and the Reichsflotte, Erdmann negotiated the Jade Treaty with Prussia from June 1852 in the person of the Secret Admiralty Councilor Samuel Gottfried Kerst , which on July 20, 1853 for the cession of the 340 hectares of the Oldenburg area on the Outer Jade to Prussia which later became Wilhelmshaven. The inconspicuous implementation of the contract only succeeded because Erdmann's brother-in-law Rüder, as a lawyer, bought up individual land for the Prussian tax authorities. Erdmann was appointed by the new Grand Duke Peter II to be authorized to carry out the contract. Erdmann used the Prussian payments around 1854 for a comparison with the controversial heirs of the Kniphausen and Varels rule , who thereby waived their rights and gave the rule to grand ducal possession. This settled the 180-year old Bentinck succession dispute between the Oldenburgers and the Bentinck family over these lords.

Erdmann was the delegate of the Grand Duchy in the negotiations to replace the sound tariff and one of the signatories of the Copenhagen Convention of March 14, 1857.

District President of Oldenburg

After the death of the District President Friedrich Mutzenbecher , Erdmann was elected as his successor on May 1, 1857 after a transition period. During his term of office, the contracts with Prussia fell in 1864 for the construction of a railway from Wilhelmshaven via Oldenburg to Bremen and further to the connection to the already existing Minden railway line. In 1867 the railway from Oldenburg to Leer was built . On the 50th anniversary of his service, he was finally promoted to privy councilor with the right to the designation " Excellenz " and honored by Prussia with the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class . After the reorganization of the ministry and the dissolution of the government in December 1868, Erdmann became president of the evangelical high school college on May 5, 1869 and remained in this office until he was 82, in the year of his 60th anniversary in 1877. He presided over the administration commission He even kept the funds and charitable foundations of the Grand Duchy until 1891 and only resigned at the age of 96 and after his 75th service anniversary. Theodor Erdmann died at the age of 99 on December 8, 1893 in his home in Oldenburg.

family

Theodor Erdmann married on April 17, 1827 in Eutin Emma, ​​b. Oars. The couple had four children: Elisabeth (1828–1829), Marie Elisabeth (1830–1878), Johannes (1833–1901), tenant of the Klein BANY domain in East Prussia, and Hugo (1836–1878), who was the captain of North German Lloyds was killed in the Atlantic by a falling piece of iron.

Awards

• Oldenburg House and Merit Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig

Capitular 1854

Honorary Grand Commander 1867

Capitular Grand Commander 1871

Honorary Grand Cross 1872

• Order of the Red Eagle , 2nd class, 1867
• Dannebrogorden , commander August 4, 1857

Literature and Sources

• Erdmann, Theodor. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 179-180 ( online ).
• Rüder, August / Erdmann, Theodor: Theodor Erdmann, Grand Duke. Oldenburgischer Geheimer Rath, Excellenz: a biographical attempt for the members of the Ranniger family cooperative , Littmann, Oldenburg 1895. Digital edition of the Oldenburg State Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1910, 63 , 47
2. ↑ Harald Schieckel : Günther Jansen's memories of his stay at the grand ducal court in Eutin 1865. Oldenburger Jahrbuch, 1889, Volume 89, p. 81 ( online ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ).